![What Is to Be Done? [Burning Questions of Our Movement]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/W/IMAGERENDERING_521856-T1/images/I/61ynAWXEHVL._AC_UL200_SR200,200_.jpg)
As a graduate student in sociology who studied the works of Karl Marx, I was always struck by the cruel irony that the only countries advancing his communist theories were exactly those places in which he least expected such revolutionary change; czarist Russia and feudal China. Marx had predicted that the western democracies, including England, France, and Germany, were the most likely locale for such proletariat uprisings. The fact that the two backward and predominantly rural countries of China and Russia were the only ones to succumb to the siren call of a worker's paradise owes much to the unique and extraordinary efforts of exceptional individuals in each of the two countries, each of whom through their own extraordinary insight, political savvy and exquisite timing successfully executed bloody overthrows of ancient regimes.
This wonderfully written and masterfully told biography of the first of these two men on horseback, Russian Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) does great tribute to both the incredible genius and singularity of the man himself, while at the same time paints a wonderfully descriptive and quite comprehensive picture of the maelstrom of social, economic, and political circumstances surrounding the rise of Lenin's Bolshevik party to power. Lenin's importance in the subsequent developments both within the former Soviet Union and indeed throughout the modern world can hardly be exaggerated. And while we now self-confidently brag that the specter of communism is dead, the fact is that much of what Marx and later Lenin wrote regarding the continuing evolution of society continues to unfold.
In what is commonly referred to as Marx's "Emiseration" theory, the gradual but inexorable drift of the two major political forces, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, toward increasing polarization and the eventual erosion of the large middle class separating them would lead to increasing concentration of wealth and widespread impoverishment as the owners of industry and corporations became more and more powerful and less and less accountable. Many observing the contemporary creation of a permanent "underclass" in modern democratic societies in the United States, Great Britain, and Germany as well as the slide of many in the middle class toward economic uncertainty and insecurity remember Marx's prognostications nervously. Perhaps, they say, we have celebrated the final victory over communism too soon.
In this fashion, Service's wonderful book about Lenin and his ideas provides the reader with a terrific understanding of his biographical roots, his philosophical concerns, and his social, economic, and political agenda. Whether one gives any credence to Marxian thought or to Lenin's revisions to this theory of scientific socialism, one must give credit to the quality of mind that conceived of such a mind-boggling overthrow of the powers that be, with little to work with but a rag-tag bunch of political malcontents and committed party members to work with. The story of how they actually succeeded at overthrowing one of the most callous and brutal regimes in modern history with so little going for them but the indifference of the populace and the blind ignorance of the existing monarchy is truly one for the history books. While that story is brilliantly told in John Reed's spellbinding "Ten Days That Shook The World", this biography shows how Lenin himself came to be the mastermind guiding the Bolsheviks toward victory and then through a bloody civil war to come to rule the country with an iron fist. This is a marvelously entertaining and edifying book, and is one I heartily recommend. Enjoy!
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Top reviews from other countries
bob
Must for Russian history lovers.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 23, 2020
Claymore
Excellent book on Lenin
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 14, 2014LJK
Highly recommended- accurate portrayal
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 27, 2020Dr Kenneth Shorrock
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 15, 2018
